


Don't mess with potions

by GabrieleKazlauskaite



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Near Future, Potions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-22
Updated: 2020-07-22
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:13:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25436713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GabrieleKazlauskaite/pseuds/GabrieleKazlauskaite
Summary: Fred, George and Lee find and make a potion from the restricted section and it reveals a few surprises too many.
Comments: 10
Kudos: 20





	Don't mess with potions

**Author's Note:**

> Based off a reddit prompt and I was really excited to write it out into a fic. Who knows, I might just take it a step further and add a better twist.

There, by the fire in the  Gryffindor common room, sat Hermione, Harry and Ron; the girls from the Quidditch team were enjoying a game of exploding snaps where Alicia was losing pitifully and Dean, Seamus and Ginny were seated on the couch not too far from the trio of fifth-year students, just silently chatting away while others simply did their own thing. It had been a quiet evening, one lacking in excitement until the portrait of the Fat Lady burst open, the excitement of the three seventh-year boys came in laughing and planning loudly for the entire room to hear. Some were quick to notice the two smoking vials containing dark vomit-green liquid, a stopper placed on top to stop the potentially smelly potion to waft over.

“We’ve done it!” Lee Jordan exclaimed, pumping his fist happily into the air. “We’ve done it!” This rapidly pulled the attention of just about everyone in the room. Everyone knew the trio to be inventive, so to say the other Gryffindors were curious as to what they had achieved was an understatement. 

Hermione and Harry were the firsts to approach the twins and Lee,  watching the small bubbling liquid with caution. “What have you done now?” Hermione asked suspiciously. “If this is another pro-”

One twin leapt forward and cut her off. “Not a product, Hermione!” Her cheek got pinched as a tease. 

“Won’t catch us that easily, love.” The other said with a grin, throwing his arms around her shoulders. When Hermione shot them a quizzical glance, he pointed to the other "Georgie, show her.” They now deduced that it was Fred whom they had been talking then.

George lifted the vial up for everyone to see and exclaimed proudly. “We’ve completed a highly classified, NEWT-level potion” Lowering his voice, he added “right from the restricted section.” Beside him, he merely ignored Fred shoving his hand over Hermione’s mouth before she could protest their rule-breaking. 

“What does it do?” Asked Harry, now intrigued about the peculiar potion. 

Fred spoke up, still keeping his hand over Hermione’s mouth as she was trying to remove it with her hands. “This here Harry, one drop from this potion and it’ll show you what you look like in one year” He grinned. Harry’s eyebrows rose. “Want to try?”

This was when Hermione’s efforts finally paid off and she cut him off. “Harry, don’t. You don’t know what’s in it.” She sternly told him. “It could give you boils for  all you know.” 

“I don’t think so Hermione. Fred and George haven’t lied to us yet. I think it’s fine.”

The twins looked at each other and grinned, their teeth showing. Some more intelligent students took this as a warning and took a few steps back from the looming mischievous gingers. Once George removed the stopper, the nearer students immediately plugged their noses in disgust. Some made over-exaggerated gagging noises, while some simply ran up to their dorms. 

“Have you at least tested it yet?” Hermione asked, looking away from the icky potion. 

“Of course, we learned that the more drops you give, the more years you add. Right about turned Lee into an adult an hour ago.” Humoured Fred. Lee was over nodding enthusiastically. Perhaps Lee saw something exceptionally remarkable in his future.

George motioned Harry over first and pulled out a dropper, letting one small thick drop fall onto Harry’s tongue. Almost immediately, there was a small change, but it wasn’t big. “Harry, you look a bit stressed there, mate.” Was all he commented. “We’ll try another drop then.” What  occurred next was jaw-dropping. 

What was revealed to the common room was a thinned-out Harry, stress very apparent on his face, and the tell-tale red-rimmed eyes, coupled  with many scars decorating his entire body. 

“Mate...” He heard someone in the room mumbled. “You look like you’ve come out of a warzone...” Most didn’t comment and awkwardly tried to glance away. If the potion was indeed brewed properly, that meant two years from then had at least Harry coming out a battle-zone. The only apparent signs that he had aged was the longer hair and the extra two inches. 

Hermione was sceptical about the potion. She didn’t like the result she saw unravel. What in the world had happened in the next two years to cause such a thing? She, like the others, knew something big was going to happen, but something of the apparent calibre had to be of a war or damn near close to it. 

Ron moved up next and happily took 2 drops from George, who now seemed a bit more reluctant to dish out the liquid. Ron’s appearance changed drastically too, but not in the same way. He wasn’t thinned out the same way, but it was apparent he had gone hungry for a while. His eyes had lost any spark they had, and his eyes were darkly red-rimmed as well. Cuts everywhere where materialising, from his neck, to his hands,  cheeks but the thing that had Harry spitting water was the missing eyebrow, so obviously singed off by some form of fire or heat. 

“Ron... Harry...” Dean and Ginny looked downright horrified by the  results. 

Ginny looked away almost immediately from the cuts and blood that had dried on their skin. Lee took the vial from George’s hands and offered two drops for Ginny, who slowly took them on her tongue. Her hair grew immediately, but she too had many tears and abrasions appearing over her, and her wrist had slowly moved out of place along with her knee.  “George... Everything aches...” She muttered, rubbing her skin and joints everywhere. 

“You don’t look in the best shape... Actually, none of you do.” Angelina came over and took a look at Ron, Harry and Ginny. “I didn’t think it’d look so... graphic.” She motioned to the oozing cut below Ron’s jaw. 

“I’m going to try this.” Hermione stated, now sure of her choice. Lee quickly dropped the two drops into her mouth and, to everyone’s amazement and shock, she remained the same. No height change, no hair change, no cuts or scars, no blood anywhere; she simply had nothing change. “I don’t... I don’t understand...” She said, looking herself over with a bit of horror in her eyes. “Why didn’t it work?” The room filled with an eerie silence where even the twins were perplexed by this change of events. They hadn’t seen anything like it during the testing stage with Lee and one of their other friends. They all had suffered some change, yet Hermione stood there, in the middle of the room, with everyone gawking as she tried to figure out if anything had changed. 

“Who... wants to try next?” Alicia, Katie and Angelina all went next. Each suffered quick changes, though Katie looked the worst amongst the three: an entire section of her left arm had vanished and cuts decorated her everywhere. The two other girls practically fainted at the sight, but anyone looking at all three might’ve done the same had they seen the large burns on the two other’s backs. 

George was the next to try it, his appearance was one of the most jarring of them all.

His eyes were the ones who held the most pain and had been redder than anyone’s. Even his cheeks still had tear streaks on them. He had gained an inch in height, but he held many more jarring and attention-grabbing injuries. Most were perplexed with the missing ear and the bleeding shoulder.

“Why does everyone look like they’ve come out of a war-zone?” Seamus asked, a bit of fear lacing through his accent.  “It’s nightmarish, really...” He muttered. 

Fred reluctantly took 2 drops next, though most jaws dropped when they saw what happened. He, too, didn’t change. Not a single hair on his head changed. He bore no cuts, scars, or injuries of any sort. 

He hadn’t changed. It was just like Hermione. 

And then it clicked.

The silence in the room was so thick, as if everyone had received the same thought. Looking around, they could see tears welling up in some people’s eyes. “You... You both died.” Ginny mumbled, the colour leaving her face along with many others. 

Panic flooded through both of their veins. “Absolutely not.” Neither wanted to believe it and denied it vehemently. 

Angelina, having recovered from her shock of seeing Katie with half an arm missing, was the first to speak up. “It... would make sense... Everyone seems like they’ve each cried their own rivers, yet... You both are the only ones with no changes whatsoever...”

“You didn’t change because you died before the change could happen.” concluded Harry. 

That’s when Professor McGonagall entered the common room, confusion in her expression as her entire common room was filled with crying students whom all seemed as if they’d returned from bloody battles. 

**Author's Note:**

> What did you guys think?
> 
> Also, tell me if you guys want a part 2. I can make it happier, I swear.


End file.
